Aloha Seattle

At the Space Needle

Week 12 of 52

Experience Music ProjectIt’s Easter Sunday, the end of Week 12 of 52, and the end of our time here in Seattle and the incredibly picturesque Northwest. We’ve loved it here and as many have pointed out, we weren’t even here in the summer when it’s really gorgeous! (We did get a taste yesterday when it was 75 degrees, an amazing blue sky without a cloud in it, and lots of people out on Alki Beach biking, skating, walking and having a great time!)

We had a “bucket list” of things we wanted to do while we were here and we still had a few items we hadn’t done. We finally made it up to the top of the Space Needle and WOW! What a view in every direction. We also went to the Experience Music Project. The photo above (the one that looks like stomach surgery gone wrong) is the building designed by Frank Gehry and, well, it’s different…. They just opened up the Nirvana exhibit so even though we’re flower children from the ’60s we now know all about the “grunge music scene of the ’90s.” Seeing the outside you can only imagine how innovative the exhibits were, lots of good fun especially for Harrison who has such eclectic musical tastes.

Facing FutureMusic seemed to be the “theme of the week.” We got to hear the Seattle Symphony play Gershwin and Tchaikovsky at Benaroya Hall and then we topped it off last night with some wonderful southern eats and good blues at the Highway 99 Blues Club near Pike Place Market. A true blues bar with live music every night of the week.

If that musical lineup isn’t diverse enough for you (remember a few weeks ago it was bluegrass and barbershop quartets!) we have another book recommendation, this one about Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole (yes, we can spell that WITHOUT looking it up). Facing Future by Dan Kois gives you an inside look (sometimes sweet, sometimes not so pretty) of the musician who is now famous throughout the world for his Somewhere Over the Rainbow medley and who is a legend throughout Hawaii. At only 144 pages (small kine for our Hawaii contingent) it’s a quick but good read. Even if you’re not interested in all things Hawaiian, the CD is wonderful.

Jim and Donna

The lovely and talented Jim and Donna!

As the first leg of our year-long trip comes to a close, we want to say a very heartfelt mahalo to our dear friends, Jim and Donna. They stayed in our condo in Honolulu for a month last December, and in return, we got three months in theirs in Seattle! We didn’t plan it that way, we just loved it here so much, we kept extending! And thanks to their kindness and generosity, it has been a wonderful start to our extended retirement party. Thanks you two, you are very special to us.

So what now? We leave Tuesday for a 4–5 week driving trip across the northern states and parts of Canada, starting out by heading up to Vancouver BC via Whidbey Island and Anacortes. The plan is to end up in Boston around the first week of June and hang out there until we leave for Europe in early July. We’re completely wired with 3 laptops, 2 iPhones, Skype, GPS, and Harrison’s digital library of 5,000 songs he installed from his collection before we left. If our technology dies, we have maps, Bananagrams, and some Trivial Pursuit cards, so we’ll be just fine!

Washington Ferry

Next stop: Vancouver!

Thanks to all our friends in Seattle, Portland and Ashland for your thoughtfulness and generosity. We had a great time…

A hui hou!
Sharene and Harrison